


The Dynamite Duo

by HorizonTheTransient



Category: Aberrant (RPG), Genius: The Transgression, Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 17:36:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18168116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HorizonTheTransient/pseuds/HorizonTheTransient
Summary: The first arc of a fic I ended up scrapping due to difficulties with the second arc.





	1. The Dynamite Duo

Rose ducked back down as the bullet whizzed over her head. No, it was not yet safe to come out. She glanced around, making sure she wasn't being flanked, and carefully reloaded her revolver. Someone once told her it was an impractical choice, that an autoloader had a  _ much _ better rate of fire. Rose snorted; just in this one gunfight, she'd seen autoloader pistols jam  _ twice _ .

She briefly considered her surroundings; she was in an alleyway, barely hiding her considerable frame behind a dumpster with the aid of a lot of hunching, while three ABB street soldiers shot at her from near the mouth of the alley. There might be innocents around, and so when she reached for one of the grenades hidden in her voluminous trenchcoat, she didn't reach for the ones that sprayed sharp metal everywhere.

Before Rose could do anything  _ with _ her grenade, however, she heard the gunfire abruptly cut off, replaced by screaming and meaty thuds. One of the red-and-green-garbed street soldiers flew over her head and landed in a heap on the alley floor. Rose carefully turned and stood up, and beheld Glory Girl standing in the mouth of the alley, crumpling the barrels of a pair of handguns as two beaten and broken gangsters slowly, painfully dragged themselves away from her.

"Well! Didn't expect to see  _ you _ here," Rose said, standing up to her full height. "Isn't today a  _ school day _ , young lady? What are you doing o-"

"Cut the shit," Glory girl said, tossing the guns aside. "Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck happened here?"

"I'm Rose Victoria Corcoran, and I'm on a self-appointed mission to kill Bakuda before she blows up the city," Rose said. "And, well... These three didn't really like that. Or they objected to me breaking into one of the ABB's stash houses. Either or."

Glory Girl stared for a few moments, before sighing. "You too, huh?"

"...Pardon?"

"Let me guess," she began. "You woke up this morning, April 8th, just  _ knowing _ that in a week's time, Brockton Bay will be burning, and exactly whose fault that is."

"...Perhaps," Rose admitted. "Just how much do you remember of what hasn't happened yet?"

"Two years," Glory ground out.

"Ah," Rose said. "Yeah, that's about as far as I remember, too. Tell you what- how about the two of us work together, make sure our memories don't come true? Build a better tomorrow, one villain at a time?"

"What makes you think I need the help of some swishy Anne Rice-looking motherfucker?" Glory Girl asked, folding her arms.

"I'm a Tinker with specialties that let me counteract other technology," Rose said. "You wanna take down Boom Bitch? You gotta get past those bombs first, and I'm your best chance at that."

"...Well." Glory Girl started chuckling, shaking her head. "Guess God  _ does _ love me, after all. Welcome aboard."

\---

"So what was your plan?" Vicky asked. Half an hour had passed since the two met, and they were currently holed up in a cheap motel that didn't ask questions. Currently, it was about midmorning, although some people were starting to trickle out onto the streets for an early lunch. "Cause if I'm being honest, it didn't seem like you had one."

"Well, my plan was to get some experience doing cape shit  _ before _ I went after Bakuda hammer and tongs," Rose said, hunched awkwardly over a table that wasn't designed for people her size, carefully drafting some circuit diagrams. "I like knowing what I'm doing, generally. Also, I was gonna kick ass and take names until one of those names was Bakuda's, and I had a location for her."

"And in the likely event that Lung gets sick of you and shows up to kill you?" Vicky asked.

"I hit him with a flashbang grenade, and run away," Rose said. "Admittedly, it wasn't a perfect plan, but I figured I'd blunder through it with limited-but-powerful tech and a gun. I, uh. I'm pretty grateful you've decided to collaborate, by the by." Rose coughed. "Anyhow, you got a plan of your own?"

"Well, I'm thinking we do our recon with a little less violence," Vicky said. "Watch the movement of people, extrapolate from there..."

"I can just hack their phones and computers, you know," Rose said.

"That  _ also _ works," Vicky said. "What're you working on there?"

"My ace in the hole," Rose said. "I call it the Stopwatch. It'll take time to finish though, along with all the other things I need to throw together. If you're planning on dragging me out again today... it's going to have to wait until the evening."

"I can stand to wait that long," Vicky said. "Can you tell me about your power while you work?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure thing," Rose said. "I'm a sort of... Technopath? Technomancer? I  _ resemble _ a traditional Tinker, but whereas, say, Kid Win just has amazing fine motor skills and blueprints in his head,  _ I _ can locally alter the laws of reality, for the purpose of building my own impossible gadgets. The best explanation I can produce is that, through the auspices of artifice, I can imbue my artifacts with a certain purpose, and how it  _ fulfills _ that purpose doesn't matter overmuch."

"That's... weird," Vicky said. "Could you elaborate?"

"Well, like... Let's say I want a ray gun," Rose said. "Bog-standard tinkertech, right? Pretty much  _ every _ goddamn Tinker has some kind of ray gun. Well, what I do is I gather some materials- it doesn't matter  _ what _ they are, although if I associate some sort of material value with them, then it's more likely to work- and then I begin assembling them into what I think my ray gun should look like, how it should work. Upon completion, it functions to hurt people at range... but is pretty useless for anything that isn't somehow related to the core concept of harm slash destruction."

"So it's like... the platonic idea of a ray gun."

"That's actually a really good metaphor! Because in Platonic Idealism, everything in the Material world is an imperfect copy of an Idea, and everything I build has  _ some _ imperfection to it. Perhaps my ray gun, for whatever goddamn reason, is useless against anyone who is wearing any amount of silver greater than one gram. Or some other such flaw that comes up often enough to be obnoxious, but not enough that I consider the artifact useless and just make a new one."

"Makes sense," Vicky said. "Let's get back to practical differences between you and a normal Tinker later. I want to know  _ what _ platonic ideas you've got in your toolbox."

"Well, there's the idea, there's the  _ degree _ of the idea, and there's variables that can be added in," Rose said. "There's eight core Axioms, I call 'em, that can, in some combination, produce just about any sci-fi gadget you care to name. I've got access to five of them- Discovery, Independence, Control, Destruction, and Restoration, all at the first of five degrees. I'll figure out how to get other Axioms and increase their degree, but that'll take time and field-testing."

"Those are... kinda vague," Vicky said.

"Well, yeah, because I used names instead of descriptions," Rose said. "Discovery means scanners and communicators. First-degree lets me hack phones and read all the data inside. Same with computers, or books... really,  _ any _ technological device that stores information."

"What's  _ Control _ do? I'm a little, uh...  _ nervous _ about that one."

"First degree lets me hack stuff. You ever watch Dr. Who? It's basically the Sonic Screwdriver."

"So, it does everything, but mostly opening doors?"

"Really, just... manipulating technology within its natural limits. Unscrewing screws. Driving cars. Tuning radios. That sort of thing."

"Sounds pretty goddamn useful," Vicky said.

"Iunno about  _ useful _ ," Rose said. "More...  _ convenient _ . It'll solve a lot of problems, but only a few of them get substantially easier with this involved. Anyhow, Restoration is mostly for healing, at the degree I've got it to, and frankly I don't need much more than that. Destruction is any kind of weapon, including guns, knives, boomerangs, grenades, and nets."

"Independence is the last one."

"Robots! Automatons, factories, artificial limbs, computers, all that fun stuff."

"And it can be, like...  just, whatever?" Vicky said. "As long as it fits one of those general ideas?"

"And so long as I've got a good enough grip on the idea in question to do it, yes. I can't devise artifacts that work as lethal weapons."

"And so we finally come back around to the practical differences between you and a Tinker."

"I don't actually  _ need _ specialized materials and equipment," Rose said. "It  _ helps _ , but if necessary, I could hypothetically build a time machine entirely out of clay I personally dug out of a riverbank. It'd just be, you know. Really  _ hard _ . Meaning I'll probably fuck up a few times before I finally get it right."

"Which is convenient," Vicky said. "One of Tinkertech's limiting factors is that it's expensive."

"There's also certain... universal variables," Rose said. "Everything I build falls on a discrete scale of time taken, depending entirely on how large it is and how many assistants I have. Bigger is always better, with exceptions for more specific variables that narrow scopes and increase costs. Another universal variable is that I can attach artifacts to my body. I can also do implants."

"I assume you mean putting a small gadget inside your body via surgery, rather than silicone bags."

"Actually, I've done both. Er, not the silicone specifically, but these boobs of mine didn't grow like this on their own."

"...You know, suddenly I'm curious."

"I'll bet you are," Rose said. "The answer is no, I am not dumping my entire life story on you right this moment."

"Fair enough," Vicky said. "Well, I think I've heard enough about your power for now. You mind if I ask your help figuring out something about my power?"

"Yeah, sure thing," Rose said. "I'm pretty much a mad scientist. Experimentation and understanding are one hundred percent my jam."

" _ Great _ , so... My shield is weird now, basically," Vicky said, pulling out a knife and pressing the tip against her other palm. The knife's tip came to rest on a previously-invisible patch of golden energy shell. "See, it used to  _ never _ do that."

"Ah, I see," Rose said. "And... you can still fly, correct? Intimidate people very easily? All the stuff you could do before?"

"Yeah, it's just. Weird, now?"

"Yeah, see... My power, that I laboriously described just now?" Rose asked. "That's a summary of the rules for a tabletop RPG about playing as a mad scientist. And  _ you _ , my friend... Your powerset is the same in the broad strokes but different in the details? Well, that speaks pretty clearly to me."

"It  _ doesn't _ speak clearly to  _ me _ , so cut the shit and spit it out."

"Don't you see? There's games out there about playing as a superhero. And you? You likely run on the rules of one."


	2. A Stopwatch And A Gun

"Bullshit."

"You gonna sit there, Miss Time-Travelling Superhero, and tell me that there's no possible way your supernatural abilities might've been redefined as part of the time travel process?"

"Why  _ would _ they?!" Vicky asked.

"Because it's  _ already happened! _ " Rose said.

"Says you!" Vicky said. "Maybe you're wrong! Maybe you're just Dauntless with tits!"

"...One of these days, you're going to remember what you just said to me, and cringe yourself inside out," Rose said. "Anyhow, no, that's a stupid claim that fails to actually establish anything. Care to try again?"

"What I  _ mean _ is, you're  _ probably _ just some cape with delusions," Vicky said. "Or maybe  _ I'm _ the delusional one..."

"Nobody here is delusional," Rose said, politely omitting the precise nature of her power. "Look, how much do you know about the origin of parahumans?"

"...it had something to do with Scion?" Vicky asked.

"More specifically, Scion is an alien who exists across multiple parallel universes simultaneously, who has come and granted us powers because those powers are part of him, and he needs to test them out and see what improvements need to be made. This is a parasitic process, and to keep parahumans from figuring it out, the powers connect via brain and keep you from realizing the truth," Rose said. "But hey! We both know the truth, so clearly we aren't parahumans anymore."

"Or, alternatively, you are a crackpot," Vicky said.

"You are a  _ fucking time traveler _ ," Rose ground out. "Look, whatever, we can sort this out later. For  _ now _ , you need to figure out an alternate costume for yourself. Get the raw materials for it, I'll handle fabrication."

"Well that's an abrupt change of topic," Vicky said.

"My many years on the internet have taught me when an argument isn't worth having," Rose said wearily. "After that... You good with computers?"

"Yeah."

"Great, I'll give you my phone, which has plenty of hacky-cracky stuff in it. You start hacking computers or phones or whatever, and figure out where they might be keeping Bakuda's lab. If we're lucky, then we can wrap up this particular portion of bullshit tonight, and move on to the next step."

"Alright! I think I can work with that, yeah," Vicky said. "Gotta say, Rose, even if you are completely batshit, I like your cut of the jib."

"It's 'the cut of your jib.' This is a nautical expression, you're from a port city, how did you get that wrong?"

"I changed my mind, I'm going to shove you into a locker or something."

\---

"Rose, I don't mean to be rude, but the costume you made for me looks like shit," Vicky said, looking at herself in the mirror. She was currently dressed up in what appeared to be ninja-inspired black pajamas, complete with an off-the-rack black balaclava with a completely unnecessary fake knot glued onto the back.

"I did that on purpose," Rose said. "See, when someone sees an unfamiliar cape dressed like shit, they assume it's a new cape. Therefore, nobody will recognize you in this. Especially since there's an alarming lack of flowing platinum locks, tiaras, half-capes, and short skirts."

"I- that's- Fuck you."

"You're mad because I'm right."

"You are right but fuck you."

"I'm always right," Rose said with a grin. "Anyhow, you can run around being young and beautiful on your own time. Right now you need to be anonymous. Which is why your costume includes a sports bra and some padding around the waist and shoulders."

"I got  _ that _ much," Vicky muttered, turning in the mirror, before sticking her head out of the bathroom. "Hey, what about  _ your _ costume?"

"Plague doctor," Rose said, lifting a long black coat up off the table. "I'm a big fan of the aesthetic, and now that I have powers, I get to wear whatever I want in public and nobody can tell me no."

"I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way."

"Says a woman who's spent two years wearing a tiara in public."

"I'm going to murder you in your sleep."

\---

"So, what's made you decide to stay here, with a stranger, for this long?" Rose asked, passing the binoculars back to Vicky. The two of them were in their new costumes, crouched on a rooftop in a particularly run-down area of the part of town everyone called The Docks, despite the fact that the city's actual docks were on the other end of town, and the only thing nearby that qualified was a now-abandoned ferry.

"...you  _ are _ aware of what happened to me in the last- er,  _ next _ two years, right?" Vicky asked.

"I am, yes, but that just explains why you're not at home," Rose said. "What I'm wondering, I suppose, is why you haven't gone and grabbed your suddenly-alive boyfriend, and flown off to a cheap motel in upstate New York to catch up on lost time."

Vicky grunted. "It's... complicated. I just... Look, there's a  _ lot _ wrapped up in that. Right now... I don't want to be alone, but I don't want to be around people I  _ know _ . You know?"

"Makes sense," Rose said. "Take a few days to unwind, break some skulls, and let your emotions simmer on the backburner."

"Pretty much. Now, let's refocus on our objective."

"Right. Run me through it one more time, just to be sure."

"Ugh, fine," Vicky muttered. "The building we're looking at, which is across the street from us, is, on paper, condemned and unfit for habitation.  _ However _ , it is an ABB stash house that has a lot of traffic going in and out, along with everything  _ else _ around it being condemned and  _ actually _ uninhabited because they're crumbling and falling apart. So... Perfect place to put a bomb tinker's workshop, I think."

"Alright," Rose said, nodding. "Therefore, there will be armed guards inside. So... hang on."

Rose reached inside her coat, then produced a small paper packet and a flashbang grenade.

"Earplugs," Rose explained, opening the packet. "Put 'em in, pull the pin, and go through the front door like a truck with bad brakes."

"Right, gotcha. How many flashbangs you got?"

"That's the only one. Make it count."

"Right. Okay. So... We're ready?"

"I think so."

"Alright. Let's do it."

\---

"Fuck me running is this shit complicated," Joon muttered.

"It's not  _ that _ bad," Shoto said. "I mean, yeah, it splits an attack into a 'do I hit' roll and a 'how much damage do I do' roll, but Dungeons and Dragons does that, too."

"D&D only makes you roll, like, two dice," Joon said. "God, this is just...  _ bad _ . I can't wait for White Wolf to port this system over to the New World of Darkness system."

"It's not  _ that _ bad, you coward," Shoto said.

"We're only playing this because one of the third-party books is, like, your fetish!"

Shoto stood up from the table, eyes smoldering. "You wanna fucking  _ go _ , little m-"

The front door broke open, and just as they realized what was happening, the flashbang hit the floor and went off.

"Fuck that was loud," Vicky said, floating in.

"Yeah, I gave you earplugs for a  _ reason _ ," Rose said, pulling out her own earplugs. "Zip-tie those guys to something, will you?"

While Vicky attended to that, two more guards burst into the room, guns at the ready.

Rose lifted her left hand in a quick but graceful arc, squeezing it into a fist. Electricity arced forth from the Stopwatch, bursting into something resembling a plasma globe writ large. The guards panicked, squeezing the triggers of their guns, and finding them immobile. Before they could try anything else, Rose raised her own gun, squeezing off a pair of gutshots.

"The hell was  _ that _ about?" Vicky asked.

"I call it the Stopwatch because it stops watches, and every  _ other _ technological device it's shot at," Rose said, raising her gauntlet. "That  _ includes _ turning on the safety of any gun that's got one."

"...Damn," Vicky said. "You mind if I adopt you? I've been needing a new curly-haired brunette sister, ever since I disowned Amy."

"So I'm going to do you a favor and pretend you never said that," Rose said, walking through the door the two guards had come through. "Alright, so... Should be in the basement, right? That's probably the most stable part of a building. I think. I'm not an architect."

"It makes sense to me," Vicky said, zip-tying the men Rose had shot. "The floor at least isn't about to collapse, because it's a concrete slab on top of bedrock."

"Right. Plus, there's the fact that the basement will contain more of the blast than the rest of the building would," Rose said, casting about for the basement staircase. "Ah, here we go!"

"Who's going first?" Vicky asked.

"You, because you're bulletproof," Rose said. "And because I can shoot the Stopwatch over your shoulder."

"Alright. Let's do it."

"Sure thing, Rachel."

"Oh fuck you, just. Fuck you." Vicky began floating down the staircase, grumbling under her breath about Animorphs and how it'd been ruined for her, Rose ghosting along behind her with silent footfalls. They reached a door at the bottom of the steps, and paused to gather themselves. "On three. One. Two.  _ Three! _ "

Vicky kicked the door open, and the Stopwatch arced another ball of pseudo-lightning into the room as the duo entered the room.

"...Son of a  _ whore _ ," Rose growled.

"It's  _ empty! _ " Vicky said.


	3. Dropping Bombs

"But- they talked about so many shipments coming through here!" Vicky said, wandering into the center of the room, Rose at her back. "How can it be  _ empty?! _ "

"Oh, that's real simple," a voice behind them said. They whirled on their heels, and the door slammed closed. "It's a sort of warehouse, a shipping hub, and I do the rest of the distribution," Oni Lee said. "Anyhow. Name's Oni Lee. Pleased to meet you. You die now."

The reaction was instant; the ball-lightning of the Stopwatch enveloped Lee, followed shortly thereafter by a super-strong fist going through his face, crumbling him to ash.

"We need to run," Rose said, turning and firing at Lee where he'd reappeared. When he crumbled to ash, it was without leaving another clone in the basement; there must have been holes in the ceiling.

"What? No, fuck that," Vicky said.

"Listen, if Lee is here, then Lung knows we're here, too, and he's coming to kick our ass," Rose whispered. "We  _ might _ be able to take them, but if we  _ do _ , then we still  _ lose _ . Now come  _ on _ , we need to  _ run! _ "

"...Fine," Vicky said. "But we're having a  _ long _ talk about who's in charge here, after this."

"Great, cool, now let's  _ move _ ," Rose said, remotely opening the door with the Stopwatch.

"How the fuck did you do  _ that? _ " Vicky asked, before a grenade entered the room(and was then disabled via Stopwatch).

"That's what happens when you ask questions," Rose said, gesturing for Vicky to head up the stairs.

The two of them made good time back out of the safehouse, pursued by an increasingly frustrated Oni Lee who was very upset that all of his grenades turned to duds when thrown at Rose.

"Give the boss-man our love!" Rose yelled as Vicky picked her up and flew off.

\---

"Alright, so, with a bit of prep time, I could build a device that locates Bakuda directly," Rose said, on a rooftop somewhere away from the Docks.

"No," Vicky said, turned away from Rose to stare out into the distance, dramatically.

"Pardon?"

"You heard me," Vicky said. "I've picked more than just one target for tonight. Bakuda's got a cell phone. We can hack that, and-"

"You might as well have told Lee, who is a teleporter and is probably back in Lung's office, that we have been hacking their phones," Rose said. "Bakuda will quickly be separated from her cell phone, and it will be placed in a trap."

"...Oh," Vicky said. " _ Fuck _ , they  _ would _ , wouldn't they. But... We don't have  _ time _ for you to sit around building a new Tinkertoy."

"One, I work faster than you think," Rose said. "Two, we  _ do _ have time. We have an entire  _ week _ . Yes, we're on a race against the clock,  _ but the clock doesn't know that _ . Also, let's be honest, if it comes to it, we can just pay Skitter a personal visit and politely but firmly ask her to stay home Sunday night."

"Why should we  _ need _ to?" Vicky asked. "Look, it isn't late, it's only like seven thirty. You can't tell me you're  _ already _ tired after barely  _ one fight _ ."

"Two," Rose said. "Remember how you found me? With people shooting at me with guns?"

"...You lived."

"Also, neither of us have eaten all day."

"Well, fine, but-"

"Also, unlike you, I have been up and about for  _ way _ the hell too long. I have maybe an hour left before I crash."

"...Alright,  _ fine _ , but Bakuda's a Tinker, too," Vicky said. "Any time  _ you _ have to prepare is time  _ she _ has to prepare, too."

"She is a  _ bomb _ Tinker, and I have the  _ Stopwatch _ ," Rose said. "Pretty much all she's got left to throw at me are rocks and harsh language. Now c'mon, I need food and then sleep."

\---

"I got breakfast," Vicky said, walking into the motel room. It was early in the morning, and Rose had been hard at work on... some kinda techno-wizardry. "What's that?"

"This is the scanner we need," Rose said, tinkering with a black plastic box attached to a plasma globe by a thick black cable. "Side note, next time we have to get a motel, we are getting one with more than one bed. Last night was nothing like those homoerotic 'only one bed' fanfics you see all over the place, it was just uncomfortable as hell."

"Noted," Vicky said. "So, learn anything useful?"

"Yeah, y'know the very obvious plan of sneaking into Bakuda's room while she's asleep and decapitating her?" Rose said. "That isn't going to work. She's a Noctis Case, apparently."

"Fuck," Vicky muttered. "You  _ do _ mean she doesn't sleep at all, right? You're not using some weirdo niche definition only you understand?"

"Yes, I am using the standard definition of Noctis Case," Rose said. "Oh, also, I figured out what game you're running on. You run on Aberrant, and here is your character sheet." Rose handed over a sheet of printer paper, with plenty of numbers printed on it.

"I- that's- wow." Vicky stared at the sheet. "...Apparently my two most impressive attributes are my strength and my pretty face."

"There's a very good reason the New World of Darkness system replaced 'Appearance' with 'Presence,'" Rose said. "Near as I can figure it, the Mega-Appearance is to recreate your aura, with the 'Awe-Inspiring' enhancement."

"Yeah, to be honest, Appearance is the only stat  _ less _ quantifiable than Intelligence, and  _ really _ doesn't belong in most games," Vicky said. "Of course, I only say that so you can't call me vain for being  _ very _ pleased about this piece of paper telling me I'm hot."

"You don't need a piece of paper for that, you just need eyes," Rose said.

"Aw, Rose, you're pretty too," Vicky said.

"I'm not being jealous, Vicky, I'm just gay," Rose said.

"I- y- what."

"Gay. Homosexual. I'm a lesbian. A woman who likes women. I find you very attractive and if this wasn't a stressful situation for us both, and also I did not know that you were straight and had a boyfriend, then I would currently be flirting with you." Rose paused, frowning at Vicky, who was standing there dumbfounded like someone had just deep-fried her brain. "Oh for fuck's sake... Here, take this rulebook and your character sheet and start reading up. Mouthbreathe on your own time."

"I just- I think you're, like, the second gay person I've ever met," Vicky said.

"Oh, you've  _ met _ plenty of lesbians in your time," Rose said. "You just don't know, because for  _ whatever _ reason, none of them felt safe telling you. Now, as I was saying, think that over on your own time; you've got work to do."

\---

"This is the last of them," Rose said, securing the man's wrists with a zip tie.

"You sure it's healthy to just drug them like that and leave them laying around?" Vicky asked.

"It's more healthy than a knife to the throat," Rose said. "Fact of the matter is, it is  _ really _ goddamn hard to incapacitate someone for long periods of time without doing permanent harm. At least I used ether, and not chloroform. Chloroform'll give people heart attacks."

"That kinda brings me to the question of what we do with Bakuda," Vicky said.

"She absolutely needs to die," Rose said. "Which makes our jobs a  _ lot _ easier: just gotta shoot her or cut her throat. Or, alternatively, you punch her through her face."

"I've... never killed anyone before."

"Then I'll do it. You've got enough shit to deal with as-is." Rose's eyes glowed briefly behind the lenses of her mask. "Through here." She pointed at a door.

"The glowy-eyes are kinda freaky," Vicky said, taking the lead.

"Mm," Rose "said," clearly not paying much attention. The two silently made their way down through the building, and into the basement, pausing at the bottom of the staircase, the door to Bakuda's lab directly in front of them, just ten yards down the hall. "This is it. I've tweaked the Stopwatch's radius, so it  _ should _ disable  _ everything _ in that room, even if I just hit the door."

"So as soon as you fire it off, I need to be going through the door, right?" Vicky asked.

"Yeah, I think that's about right," Rose said. "This doesn't actually fry anything, it just... y'know. Turns it off. It can be turned back on. What we need to do is take her down before she can try anything."

"Right. Okay. I'm ready."

The two of them approached the door, Rose planting her left hand silently but firmly against the door. They were briefly enveloped by the telltale plasma globe, which ended roughly the same moment Vicky crashed through the door like a charging rhinoceros, Rose following quickly after her, revolver in hand.

Bakuda, however, seemed to be ready for them. She whirled around in her desk chair, snatching a glass bottle off her desk, and hurled it at Vicky, who casually reached out to catch it...

...and missed.

The bottle caught on the tip of Vicky's thumb, arresting most of its momentum as it bounced upwards a bit, before falling to the ground and breaking open, its contents exploding outwards and enveloping Rose and Vicky both.

"Ah, shit," Rose said.

"Hah! Looks like your little toy doesn't work on chemical reactions!" Bakuda crowed, jumping up out of her seat.

"Remember how you said all she would have left to throw are rocks and harsh language?" Vicky asked, turning her head(which was all that stuck out of the foam) to face Rose. "I think she found something else."

"The hell's this?" Rose asked, ignoring Vicky. "Containment foam? How'd you manage that?"

"Well, as it turns out, expanding, high-strength, rapid-set foam is technically an explosive," Bakuda said. "Sure, it's not  _ exactly _ containment foam as the PRT makes it- it's a lot  _ better _ for combat applications, which is, you know,  _ fucking all of them _ \- but I'm sure that distinction is lost on you. And if not, it will be pretty soon. Now, let's see... where did I put that gun..."


	4. Fallout

"Hang on, you said this was different from the official stuff," Vicky said. " _ How _ different?"

"It sets faster, duh," Bakuda said, hunting around for a gun. "And it expands more. Much better for sticking people to the ground. Shame the PRT sucks ass, they'd probably like this formula more than Dragon's shit-ass foam."

"What sorta compromises did you make?" Vicky asked. "The fact it needs air to react is an obvious one, but what else?"

"The fuck you mean, what else?" Bakuda said. "This is real life, not some fuckin' game. Trade-offs aren't a thing. Sometimes shit's just straight-up  _ better _ than other shit."

"Yeah, but differences are still a thing," Rose said. "For one, I bet this stuff would react differently to containment foam's solvent."

"Wouldn't know, I don't  _ have _ that," Bakuda said, opening a drawer and pulling out a revolver. "It's only obvious if you've got two brain cells to rub together, but the PRT doesn't exactly share that formula much."

"Also, the air-set formula, along with the  _ quicker _ set and the bigger expansion... What's that do to the strength?" Vicky asked. "Or the heat resistance? Have you tested it?"

"Listen, I get you two are tryin' to appeal to my techie nature," Bakuda said, checking the cylinder to ensure it was loaded. "And I appreciate that- the fact that you're so scared of me that you're tryin' to suck up to me so I won't kill you makes me feel all tingly inside. But it ain't gonna work. You two obviously came after me specifically, and I can't let that kinda shit slide, you know?"

"That's not what I'm doing," Vicky said as Bakuda pointed the gun at her. "I was just trying to suss out if I could do  _ this _ ." Her arm shot out through the foam, grabbing at the gun.

Bakuda stumbled back in a panic, squeezing a single shot off at Vicky before the room was awash in golden light, emanating from the twin lasers Vicky was suddenly shooting from her eyes, blasting the gun solidly out of Bakuda's hand, into the air, and also into a bunch of little twisted pieces.

"Huh. So you aren't Glory Girl in a ninja costume," Bakuda said, before Vicky lasered her in the face. She dropped like a sack of potatoes, groaning insensibly.

"So, uh... Doc," Vicky said. "I think now's a great time to negotiate some ground rules for our cooperation. Like how you aren't the boss of me, and you should stop acting like you are."

"Can we have this conversation when we aren't in a hostile Tinker's workshop?" Rose asked.

"Say please."

"I will not play your goddamn power games with you," Rose said. "You are attempting to place me entirely under your mercy, to render me submissive to you. This is a tremendously shitty thing for you to do, and it does not at all befit a self-proclaimed hero to behave in this way towards her friends."

"I- but- you've been doing the same thing!" Vicky said. "Always, Vicky do this, Vicky do that, Vicky you're just a dumb Brute and I'm the real brains here!  _ I _ have been a hero for years!  _ You _ are completely new to this!"

"I was not bossing you around, I was taking the initiative," Rose said. "I understand how that is somewhat of a fine distinction when I'm the one with the scanner, holding all the cards, but  _ you _ need to understand that  _ now is not the time _ . If Bakuda hasn't pressed a panic button that alerted Lee- a  _ teleporter _ \- and Lung, then I'll eat Armsmaster's helmet. Now,  _ please _ get the bottle of denatured alcohol out of the third cabinet from the left, and splash it on the foam; this stuff is alcohol-soluble, and I don't want to fight a dragon today."

"I- th-  _ fine _ , but this isn't over," Vicky said, floating over to the cabinets. She ripped the door off one of them, and grabbed a big plastic bottle, before ripping it open and dousing Rose with it.

"Thanks," Rose said, ripping herself free of the rapidly-degrading foam. "And yeah, we'll talk about this later. But first..." Rose pulled open her coat, and drew her revolver from inside the flap. At the same time, Bakuda groaned, pushing herself up a foot or so before flopping over onto her side, rolling the rest of the way over onto her back. "Sayonara." Rose took a single long stride before putting a bullet through Bakuda's right eye and out the back of her head, into the floor. "Let's get rolling."

\---

As soon as the motel door closed, Vicky turned to Rose, who was putting her gadgets down. "Okay, first question: do you actually realize that people other than you have feelings and ideas? Follow-up to that: hypocrisy isn't a good look on anyone."

Rose blinked a few times. "I- yes? I'll confess I'm not great at understanding other people's feelings, when they aren't laid out in front of me, but I get the concept," she said, turning around and taking her gas mask off, a look of genuine consternation on her face. Her tone was a bit hard to read, ranging only a note or two from 'deadpan,' but she'd been like that the whole time. "Do you mind explaining what, exactly, you mean by all that?"

"Look. I get that you're good with tech, and you're obviously accustomed to making plans," Vicky said, her indignation toning down a notch. "That's all fine and dandy. But how would it make you feel if I'd pulled rank on being the more senior cape, and decided that, because of that, I got to make all the calls? That's what you've been doing. Because you're the tech person, you've decided that you have final say in everything that involves your tech, instead of asking for my input. Which, by the way? I know we're using your inventions, but I'm the one who's been going into dangerous situations blind while you get to sit back and shoot your Stopwatch. I know I'm bulletproof, but I'm not actually invincible. And, with what you've made so far, I'm sure you could make some sort of shield device for yourself! I'm an equal participant in these plans, and I should be getting an equal say, too!"

"Then you should've said something!" Rose said. "Look, I get that I'm a bit abrasive, but did I ever show any indication that I wouldn't listen to you? I just talked, and then  _ you _ chose to listen. We haven't had a proper argument until earlier today, in the lab. I thought you were fine with how things were being done!"

"You haven't actually taken a breath and asked!" Vicky said, reaching up to claw at her hair and gritting her teeth. "I'm just.....ugh! It feels like all I'm good for is being a human shield!"

Rose blinked, and looked down. She drew a deep breath, before sighing silently. "I'm sorry. I fucked up." There was a brief pause as Rose wracked her brain, trying to figure out what, precisely, she should say next. "...What do you want to do now? If you decide you don't want anything to do with me anymore, I understand that now, and I don't blame you."

"I still want to work with you. You're, uh..." Vicky let out a weak chuckle. "...probably the only person who's not gonna think I'm crazy. And....your plans are good. I'm not saying they're not. I've just been frustrated with how little say I've had in them."

"Yeah, that's fair," Rose said. "I'll try and remember to ask, but... look,  _ you  _ gotta start insisting more often, too. That sound fair to you?"

"That sounds fair to me." Vicky nodded, then stuck her hand out. "Shake on it?"

"Only if you promise not to break any of the bones in my hand." Rose blinked, before frowning. "Or anywhere else in my body, actually."

Vicky snorted, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, I promise."

Rose shook Vicky's hand in about the same manner as any scrawny nerd who wanted to be a Bond Villain. "Now, on a side note," Rose said, "this whole arrangement does not apply inside my apartment, if you decide you don't want to go home or stay with the glorified cop you call a boyfriend."

"I guess that's fair," Vicky said with a shrug. "I wouldn't want people thinking they had a say in what goes on around inside my house either."

"And this all brings me to an important question," Rose continued, letting go of Vicky's hand and turning around, starting to pace. "Or, perhaps, back to my last question: what's next for you? Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? And ultimately... What do you want out of life, and what's your plan for getting it? Take your time."

"Oof, those are... Those are some big questions," Vicky muttered. "Can I take a rain check? Or. Can  _ you _ ?"

"Yeah, that's fair. How bout a much easier question?"

"....Sure?"

Rose turned to face Vicky, spreading her arms wide. "Hug?"

A smile tugged at Vicky's mouth, and she literally flew into the hug, nearly bowling Rose over as she wrapped her arms around the gangly Genius. Clearly, it had been far too long since Vicky'd had a proper hug.

"So... friends?" Rose asked, hugging Vicky back, squeezing as hard as her noodly two dots of Strength would permit.

Vicky nodded against Rose's shoulder, unwilling to break the hug just yes. "Friends." Rose couldn't see Vicky's face, but she could hear the smile in Vicky's voice.


	5. Interlude 1

"No, but seriously, what's your next move?" Rose asked, after the hug had ended(which took five entire minutes).

"Honestly, not sure," Vicky said. "On the one hand, yes, I  _ do _ want to see Dean... but on the other hand,  _ you _ managed to push me around  _ by accident _ . I think I'd like to get my feet beneath me before I try talking to someone who knows me pretty well and would probably try to make me go back home."

"Mm, that's fair," Rose said.

"What about you?"

"I'm going to look for an apartment," Rose said. " _ Hopefully _ I can find one in short order the legit way without having to call up The Woman In Black and shake her down for an apartment, but... well, it's a tempting prospect, actually. Hey, hang on- question."

"Mm?"

"Check your character sheet for me, tell me how many experience points you have. Your face being well-known is going to cause some problems, and there's a fairly cheap ability that'll solve that problem for you, as well as just being plain useful to have."

Vicky wandered over to the gadget-strewn table, and located her character sheet. "Uhhh... I've got... Six points of XP right now."

"Cool, that should be enough. Pick up the rulebook and flip to Mega-Appearance Enhancements. Copycat is the one I'm thinking of."

"Now, hang on," Vicky said, still picking up the rulebook. "What, exactly, makes you think I need powers to disguise myself?"

"Because one of your powers right now is being very visually distinct, and also the entire city knows your name and face?" Rose said.

"Well- yes, but why can't I just put on a hoodie and sunglasses?"

"Because that looks suspicious as hell in mid-April, and isn't a permanent solution."

"Fine, fine... hey, hang on."

"Mm?"

"Copycat is for mimicking a  _ specific _ someone else. For looking like a  _ general _ someone else, what I want is Mr. Nobody."

"Oh. Huh. But... Copycat is cooler."

"Sure, but Mr. Nobody will work as intended." She looked up from the rulebook, grinning. "I'm sure it will be burdensome for you, having to make do  _ without _ your preferred arm candy, but I have faith you'll pull through."

"You are a brat and I hate you."

\---

"This game sucks," Vicky said, paging through the Aberrant core rulebook.

"In what way?" Rose asked, wearing her mask so she could read the same document on her HUD. The two of them were sharing a couch(Vicky was lying on her back, sprawled out to take up as much space as possible, while Rose crouched directly on the seat in a manner both autistic people and fans of the show Death Note would be familiar with) in a hotel suite Rose had located in the nicer part of town.

"Well, for starters, defense is more expensive than offense," Vicky said. "If I wanted to build a character whose core concept was being invincible, then I'm just shit out of luck."

"Yeah, because that's a boring concept," Rose said. "They didn't make it that way on accident; just standing there and tanking an attack without having to do anything is boring. An enemy who cannot meaningfully hurt you is a boring enemy you don't have to think about very much."

"...Alright, fair, but there's also the problem of the health pool. That number stays the same, and as the other numbers get bigger, any big, climactic fight quickly turns into a game of rocket tag, with only a small margin between scratched paint and chunky salsa," Vicky said.

"Aberrant isn't Street Fighter or Tekken," Rose said. "It's a tabletop game, and sometimes you really don't  _ want _ a fight to take a long time to play out. And sometimes the real challenge was maneuvering your opponent  _ into _ the fight in the first place. Now, I'm not claiming the game is  _ perfect _ \- no game is, and frankly White Wolf games have never been known for their mechanical rigor.  _ However _ , with most professionally-published products, it's safer to assume that the designers knew what they were doing, and that a majority of mechanical implications are intentional."

"...What about the linear warrior quadratic wizard problem?" Vicky asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Mega-Strength gives you five automatic successes per dot for damage rolls, but how much Mega-Strength you can buy is limited to your Quantum score plus one. So if you want to boost your damage output via Mega-Strength, you need to buy another dot of Quantum first. Meanwhile, just one level of Quantum Bolt does damage that scales with Quantum, and you  _ only _ have to buy Quantum; that experience you would've otherwise spent on Mega-Strength can either go back into Quantum, buying it up faster, or into other abilities, while still keeping your damage output high. Pretty much the only advantage Mega-Strength has is that it does more damage than Quantum Bolt."

"Up until Quantum 6, at which point you buy the Mastery 1 extra for Quantum Bolt," Rose said.

"The what now."

"Check the Player's Guide. Short version is, Mastery 1 doubles the damage you get out of a power. But Mega-Strength isn't a power, so it's ineligible for Mastery, and therefore Quantum Bolt is both cheaper  _ and _ more potent at higher levels!"

"Oh what the shit, that's so fucking busted," Vicky said.

"Mastery 2 turns that multiplier from 2 to 5. Mastery 3 turns it to 20."

"Why. Why would they do this."

"Because it's a White Wolf game and the moment a single number on your character sheet gets bigger than 5, things start going batshit?"

"I bet it's cause White Wolf's audience consists mostly of people who think caring about the actual rules of a game and how it gets played is for neckbeards," Vicky said.

"Yeah, that's fair," Rose said. "That's definitely the side of the pissing match they were on back in the 90s."

"Oh?"

"What, you don't know about it?" Rose asked. "Well, the short version is, in the 90s, the two most popular games were D&D and Vampire: The Masquerade. That produced a Nintendo-vs-Sega-style pissing match between the two fandoms, and the Vampire side argued that real roleplaying was a freeform activity with minimal rules, and any references to a rulebook or even rolling dice were just a crutch for the mechanically lazy."

"What did the D&D side argue?"

"That Vampire: The Masquerade was for goths and gays. Which they meant as an insult, but as a lesbian, I'm perfectly comfortable saying that they're right, and straight people aren't allowed to play White Wolf games anymore."

"My life  _ is _ a White Wolf game now."

"I'm sorry, but you're no longer straight. You like girls now. Either that, or you're asexual. Either way, still valid."

"Damn," Vicky said. "Can't argue with that, I guess." She yawned. "Lord. Today was... Oof."

"Yeah, we had to move into a new place, have a difficult conversation, and I killed someone," Rose said.

"You did, that's a thing you did do," Vicky said. "Been meaning to tell you- if you wanna talk, my ears are open."

"Nah, don't sweat it," Rose said. "I hated Bakuda, and frankly I'm glad to see her dead. But, thanks. If  _ you _ want to talk about anything, I'm listening, too."

"Well... now that you mention it..."

\---

"You are an awful brat child and I hate you," Rose said the next morning, bringing out a pair of plates. Separated from her voluminous trenchcoat, she was less of a swishy Anne Rice-looking motherfucker, and more like a caricature of a tall person, rail-thin with disproportionately long legs. Willowy was one word that came to mind, but another was lanky. 

"Moi?" Vicky said innocently, as Rose set a plate down in front of her. "What's this?"

"Eggs in a nest. An egg fried inside a piece of buttered toast. Easier to get right than fried eggs on their own, I'd say," Rose said. "Anyhow, yes, you. I get that you  _ really _ don't want to be alone, which is why I let you sleep in my room, but you are supposed to  _ ask _ before using me as a human teddy bear."

"What're you complaining about?" Vicky asked. "You're gay, aren't you? You should be thrilled about this."

"There's a time and a place for you clinging to me like a drowning cat, and that time is  _ not _ when I'm trying to goddamn sleep."

"Well excuse me for not getting any affection for the past two years and being a  _ little _ starved for it!" Vicky said. "Ugh, you're- oh my god you're grumpy, have no superpowers beyond being really smart, and think vigilante justice is the best use of your time.  _ You're Batman! _ "

"I'm going to murder you."

"You are the Batman to my Superman and this is amazing. I wonder, though, what does this make Dean?"

"Lois Lane, duh."

"Mm, fair, fair. I wonder, who could your, uh... Hrm. Who's Batman's love interest?"

"Depends on the writer. Sometimes it's Vicki Vale, reporter for the Gotham Gazette. Usually it's Catwoman, because she has a whip and a tight leather catsuit," Rose said. "But the thing is, I wasn't born in this world. I'm new to it. You're literally the only person still alive who I've had a conversation with."

"...Oh." Vicky blinked. "...The toast is good, by the way."

"Yeah, buttering it before lightly pan-frying it generally makes better toast than a toaster, in my opinion."

Silence fell.

"...So, changing the subject-" Rose began.

"Thank you," Vicky said.

"I checked the news while I was making breakfast, and you are, in fact, reported as missing. But you'll never guess  _ what  _ else I found out while I was checking the news."

"There's more new Tinkers in town than just you?"

"No. You're not the  _ only _ missing person."

"Who else is missing? Dinah Alcott?"

"No, quit guessing, I never asked you to guess, let me finish. The other girl who went missing at the same time as you?" Rose leaned in. " _ Amelia Dallon _ ."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, that cliffhanger ending should give you an idea of what specific plot hiccup made me abandon the whole fic.


End file.
